Non-invasive, high-resolution computed tomography scanners are capable of providing detailed imaging data on anatomical structures. In the single-photon emission computed tomography (“SPECT”) of nuclear medicine, the filtered back-projection algorithm has been the most popular method used for heart image reconstruction in order to facilitate the diagnoses of coronary artery diseases. Non-invasive early recognition of heart features from SPECT images holds great promise. Unfortunately, the high uptakes of liver activities and of other organs sometimes cause false artifacts in the inferior/inferoseptal myocardial wall of the reconstruction (see G. Germano et al., “A quantitative phantom analysis of artifacts due to hepatic activity in Technetium-99 m myocardial perfusion SPECT studies”, Journal of Nuclear Medicine, Vol.35, No.2, Feb. 1994, pp.356-359).
This phenomenon is also called “liver-heart cross-talk”. A direct consequence of liver-heart cross-talk is that liver-heart artifacts may be confused with features generally caused by heart diseases, leading to potentially incorrect diagnoses by physicians relying on the reconstructed images.